14 weeks

Hoooray, more belly pictures!

Had to do another similar profile for the flip book:



And then played with some vertical shots for those of you who were just dying to see my new haircolor:







I tell you what, it is handy to have a photo studio in your basement.

Let's see...the gremlin has a thyroid gland and is producing its own hormones, it may be sucking its thumb at this point, and it is about 3.5 inches long and weighs about an ounce and a half. Extra postage!

It has also started to grow lanugo, which is a fine covering of hair that it'll keep until sometime just before it's born. Somehow having hair like Bigfoot helps protect its skin from all that amniotic fluid it's floating around in.

This isn't baby-related, but for those of you who have been worried about Norm here's a picture from this afternoon -



He's definitely feeling a lot better but will be on the antibiotics for quite a while to make sure we knock out all of that pesky bacteria this time. I was very happy to pick him up from the hospital this afternoon and bring him home for some puppy love.

FYI for those that don't know, Norm has pneumonia for the second time in about a month and the doctors aren't sure what is causing it. I think this time is just a recurrence; that we didn't do the antibiotics long enough last time. No chance of that with this one - they put him on a six week course! He's already so much happier and more lively than he was yesterday morning when we dropped him off and they had to carry him to the back to get examined (he could have walked, he just refused to go and laid down. stinker).

Anyway, that is what is going on with Norm, next time it'll be all baby, promise!

breathlessness

Breathlessness (and the constant hunger, of course) is now my major issue. I'll be laying in bed and feel like there is no way I can get enough air...it's fairly distressing. I looked it up and it is normal, women need more oxygen while they're pregnant and I guess this is just my body trying to figure out how to do that, but jeez is it annoying. It's pretty embarrassing to be completely out of breath walking up a couple of flights of stairs. Not to mention how silly it is to be out of breath while laying down to read or to try to sleep.

Getting busier at work, so that's really helping the time fly by. Ingrid and I are doing a photo shoot this weekend of her belly (she's due in July) so that'll be fun - we're going to do it in the 'studio' in the basement here.

I had my first stranger say something about me being pregnant yesterday, that was kind of weird. He's lucky I actually am in the family way or that would have been a good way to get smacked.

13 weeks

I couldn't find a good picture for this week. Boooooo.

The gremlin is about 3" long right now and weighs about .8 of an ounce. Tiny! It's starting to practice inhaling and exhaling and is getting all of its nourishment from the placenta at this point.

I just got back from Dr. George, everything went very well. He confirmed that the NT scan results were great and we got to hear the heartbeat on a little doppler dealie. I've gained 7 lbs in 5 weeks and my blood pressure was way lower than last time...but I think that might have been because I fell asleep for a little while before they came in to take it.

belly photos

ok, my friend Jan pointed out that it was shameful that I hadn't posted any belly pictures yet. So tonight while I was still feeling relatively energetic, I had Nate set up a backdrop for me, put up my lights, and did a mini photo shoot. Then I played around with different processing in photoshop and lightroom, which was great fun. Here are the ones I like best:

This one is Nate's favorite:




I really like this look and will probably be using it again, it's just so warm and soft -





I am going to try to do this weekly - should be a lot easier now that the backdrop is set up. It'll be fun to see the difference week-to-week...maybe I'll do a flip book after I deliver.

In other news, the dr's office called with the results of the NT scan that we had last week (testing for possible Down's Syndrome) and the nurse said everything looked totally normal. We have an appt on Thursday to go over the results in more detail with Dr. George.

I'd better go to bed, have to rest up for yoga tomorrow!

slacking

I know I've been posting less but there's just not that much happening! I'm still waiting for Nate to scan the 12-week ultrasound for me (the scanner doesn't work on my computer)...I have a dr. appt. on Thursday to go over the results of the scan + blood test...so far all other tests have been totally clear and normal.

I am starting to feel a little more clear and normal myself...I'm still ready for bed by 8 but am feeling slightly more alert during the day. Having said that I'm sure I'll fall into a hormone induced daze any second now.

Colleen just told me that I have 'popped', so that's kinda cool. Hopefully that means I look pregnant now rather than just fat. :)

a bit of normalcy?

I ended up going over to a friend's house to take a nap yesterday afternoon and I think that was a good choice. For some reason I was just exhausted all day and then when I started to get a headache I threw in the towel.

Two days now I've thought about staying home from work and ended up coming in and regretting it. I will make it a policy from now on that if I feel like I want to stay home when I get up in the morning I'm just going to go ahead and do it.

I am in the office this afternoon catching up on the stuff that I was too fuzzled to do yesterday. I brought Norm in with me and he is actually doing a wonderful job of cleaning my office. Way better than the janitors. They NEVER vacuum under my desk and I think Norm has already sucked up any and all food particles that may have made their way down there. He is now sleeping behind me, looking quite pleased with the little snacks he's picked up.

My friend Kris tells me that although everyone says that as soon as the second trimester starts you should start to get your energy back it is more like 14 weeks. It won't be soon enough, whenever it happens.

Oh, and it's snowing. Again. It's June, right?

my own personal utah

Today I am very tired for some reason. Somehow I managed to sleep all night but not get any rest...it's like my body is giving me a preview of what life will be like come December.

Tomorrow I'm going to get my hair done; going back to brunette. As I've been a redhead since well before I lived in Jackson I think the reactions are going to be fun.

I know there is more I should be posting about but I can't think of it. Oh, that's one thing - the baby is totally stealing my brain. I used to be relatively sharp - good recall, witty, occasionally I'd have a nice insight into a problem...no more. I can't even think of basic words like 'sweater' or 'internet' or 'restaurant'. Instead it's 'uhh....long sleeved warm thing' and 'you know, the thing with the pages and you put in what you want and it tells you stuff' and 'the place with the stuff that i like to eat'. And god forbid someone ask me to calculate a tip or remember a phone number.

It's very frustrating and I'm told it'll only get worse. Hoooooooraaaaaaaaaaaay.

edited to add - I changed the title of this post to more accurately reflect what it is about. I'm right behind you, mom. :)